{% include "includes/auth/janrain/signIn_traditional.html" with message='It looks like you are already verified. If you still have trouble signing in, you probably need a new confirmation link email.' %}

Heat-Pacers a rivalry? LeBron James says rivalries are dead

The Pacers are ready to declare Miami their chief rival, but LeBron James isn’t ready to take the relationship to that level.

While the talk out of Indiana leading up to tonight’s game at Bankers Life Fieldhouse has been about getting revenge for last year’s Game 7 loss in the Eastern Conference Finals. According to James, though, there is not yet enough material to call this a rivalry.

In fact, he believes rivalries no longer exist.
“What is a rivalry these days?” he pondered rhetorically. “A rivalry is Celtics-Lakers. They met like four out of five years. Bulls-Pistons. Those are rivalries. We’ve played these guys two years in the playoffs and guys automatically make it a rivalry. There’s no real rivalry in the NBA these days. You don’t see the competition enough. These teams are really, really good teams striving to win a championship. But rivalries, man? There are no more rivalries.

“It’s the truth. I’ve thought about that. There’s no more rivalries. There isn’t. Cowboys-Redskins is a rivalry. Ohio State and Michigan is a rivalry. Duke and North Carolina is a rivalry. [Dwyane Wade interrupts with, ‘Bears-Packers’] Bears-Packers is a rivalry.”

The closest anything has felt to a rivalry for James was a stretch where he met Boston four times in the playoffs during a five-year span with the Cavaliers and Heat. Boston beat James’ Cavs in the second round in 2008 and ’10, then he and the Heat toppled the Celtics in the second round in 2011 and the conference finals of 2012.

The Heat knocked Indiana out of the postseason each of the past two seasons. During that time, counting playoffs, Miami is 12-8 against the Pacers.

They are on track for another collision this year. Indiana has the top record in the East at 18-3, followed by Miami at 16-5. No one else is close.

“We’re two teams that have the same aspirations, and if we happen to meet again, then possibly,” James said. “But everyone wants to classify it as a rivalry. It’s not.”

View Comments
0

There are no comments yet. Be the first to post your thoughts. Sign in or register.